The Amont Pavilion

Having accommodated the decorative arts since the Musée d'Orsay opened in 1986, the Amont Pavilion has been spectacularly renovated, its structure and interior layout completely reorganised. For the first time, all the potential of this under-used space has been exploited. Architect Dominique Brard and his team from the Atelier de l'Ile have designed and created five floors of exhibition space, thus increasing the display area for the permanent collections by almost two thousand square metres.

As in the Impressionist gallery, wood flooring and coloured walls feature in the other rooms. A light well dispels any feeling of confinement. The ground floor, now one room with an impressively high ceiling, enables Gustave Courbet's large paintings to be shown to their best advantage. Levels 2, 3 and 4 accommodate international decorative arts from the 1900s, brought together for the first time with the later works of the Nabis, Vuillard, Bonnard and Maurice Denis among others. Finally, on the top floor of the Amont Pavilion, the visitor rejoins the Impressionist collections after crossing the empty space adorned only by one of the monumental clocks from the former station. Through its hands - the Paris skyline - one of the most stunning views across capital.

A strategic area within the Musée d'Orsay, the Amont Pavilion differs in that it is a separate architectural entity and can now provide a link, improving visitor flow, from the main hall to the fifth floor by means of its lift and staircase, while a new walkway connects its decorative arts collections with those in the galleries on the Seine terrace. This renovation has created a superb setting for the artworks, while at the same time offering new routes for the visitor.